1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, program, and data structure for applying a patch to a computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, to update or upgrade installed programs, a computer user would typically electronically access a vendor server site over a network, such as the Internet, and download the needed programs. Certain software vendors, such as Microsoft Corporation, provide an update program downloaded from Microsoft's web site that runs locally on the user computer, determines installed components, and presents updates the user may select to apply without transmitting any system information to Microsoft. The computer user may select suggested updates to download from the Microsoft web site. Such prior art techniques for locally analyzing the system and determining upgrades to apply are limited in that they perform only basic checking of installed components and require the execution of a program that interrogates system files each time updates are requested.
Moreover, prior art installation and updating programs, such as the Microsoft** online update program and the Setup Factory** installation program utilize commands and code that execute in the general operating system environment and are capable of accessing general system resources. Such an open architecture for applying updates and installations raises security concerns because the software vendor providing the update may inadvertently or malevolently access or modify system configuration information, data, and restricted data. Such security concerns are further heightened for update and installation packages provided by software vendors that are not known and trusted entities.
**Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. 
**Setup Factory is a trademark of Indigo Rose Software Design Corporation. 
Software vendors also make updates and fixes available through their web sites. The user typically accesses the software vendor's web site and then will attempt to ascertain what fixes and updates are needed by reading documentation on the web site. In such cases, the application of updates is based on the specific knowledge of the user of the host computer, which in many cases may be inadequate to correctly determine and select the appropriate updates and fixes to apply given the current system status.
For these reasons, there is a need in the art to provide improved techniques for determining system configuration information and applying program fixes and updates to the system.